Business Briefcase – November 2012

The Canadian fast food and coffee restaurant chain Tim Horton’s is coming to Ogdensburg. With plans to open Dec. 17, the food chain will be housed in the Parkway Express building, 1111 Champlain St., Parkway’s director of operations Michael Webster told the Watertown Daily Times. Tim Horton’s will occupy 1,600 square feet of space that was once home to Wimpy’s Restaurant.

The business will have a drive-thru lane, which has been approved by the city. Tim Horton’s spokeswoman Brynn Burton declined to comment on the Ogdensburg plans.

In rating of the 20 best properties in the region, Traveler readers gave the Mirror Lake Inn highest honors for the AAA-rated Four Diamond resort and accompanying Four Diamond restaurant, called The View.

The resort received 94 out of a possible 100 Readers’ Choice Rating points from nearly 29,000 survey-takers. Resorts were judged on rooms, service, food, design, activities and location.

Drum health planners to develop registry

Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization will work with Wellcentive, a health information technology firm based on Roswell, Ga., to develop a disease registry for the north country by year’s end.

The registry development is made possible by a $3.8 million grant from the Healthcare Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers program, awarded in June to a consortium of seven hospitals in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.

Summit focuses on wine, beer and spirits

During a late October summit held in Albany, owners of New York State breweries, wineries and distilleries shared ideas with industry experts and legislators about how the state can help business by easing regulations and strengthening a statewide marketing campaign.

In response to the business owners’ concerns, Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched a $1 million advertising campaign to promote the industry and increase tourism. Mr. Cuomo said that if industry stakeholders contribute a matching amount of $1 million, the state will contribute an additional $2 million, increasing campaign totals to $4 million.

At the summit Mr. Cuomo also announced easing of current regulations that do not allow manufacturers to make multiple alcoholic beverages with multiple manufacturing licenses under one roof. Those regulations would be axed immediately, Mr. Cuomo said, allowing brewery, winery and distillery operations of more than one alcoholic beverage to take place at one location.

Other reforms announced by the governor included: fees to acquire marketing permits will be reduced by the state Liquor Authority from $750 a year to $125 a year; duplicate licenses for farm distilleries and farm breweries will be discontinued; application requirements for producers will be reduced by the state Liquor Authority; and producers of beer and cider will be allowed to acquire temporary permits to sell their products directly to consumers at special events and street fairs.

DANC approves $2.5m for hospital consortium

The Development Authority of the North Country has approved a $2.5 million loan to the Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization to provide cash flow for a $6 million multi-year project.

The project is a regional collaboration involving seven area hospitals and DANC’s contribution will assist the hospitals with interim financing needs to ensure they have cash flow for the first year of the project.

Additional funding sources for the consortium of hospitals includes $3.8 million in grant funding from the state Healthcare Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers program, or HEAL, about $1.5 million in savings from Medicaid rate adjustments and $800,000 from participating hospitals.